Are Napoli a better side without Gonzalo Higuain?
At this stage of the last campaign, Napoli had five points less than this season and had netted one less goal. The Argentinean was almost the only one responsible to score goals twelve months ago, whilst this season, Callejon has already four, Milik and Mertens have already two goals each and Hamsik has also netted in the last league game against Palermo.
Milik also scored a brace in his Champions League debut with Napoli yesterday.
During last week-end’s Palermo clash, Ghoulam had more chances to attack as he had more space in front of him. Wingers, especially in the second half, played closer to Milik than what they were used to last season with Higuain. The three strikers are now playing very close to each other, helping both fullbacks to find more spaces on the flanks. The Algerian left-back made four crosses against Palermo, registering one assist.
Maurizio Sarri needs to ‘redistribute’ Higuain’s goals between all Napoli players and this has given more responsibility to each one of them.
Incomes of Higuain’s huge sale have also helped the partenopei to add depth to the team. With Kalidou Koulibaly who will join his Senegal teammates for the Africa Cup of Nation in January, Napoli can rely on former Torino CB Nikola Maksimovic, whilst the signings of former Liverpool target Piotr Zielinski, Amadou Diawara and Emanuele Giaccherini have given more depth to this season’s Napoli side that can face three competitions with much more (and much better) players than last season.
In the end, Arkadiusz Milik seems not to be struggling with pressure coming from replacing Gonzalo Higuain. The Poland International has four goals in as much games in all competitions so far. He will probably not level Higuain’s scoring record of last season, but with the rest of the team that has gained self-confidence and responsibility, no one would be disappointed if the 23-year-old striker would register somewhere around 20 goals at the end of the season. That would be enough to replicate and, maybe, improve last season’s results.
Lorenzo Bettoni, adapted and translated from an original piece by Giovanni Scotto
